Skill Order

Champion Matchups

Introduction

Hello and welcome,

I love Rammus. In my oppinion he is one of the best tanks in the game,one of the most useful heroes for his team and a very powerful damage source regardless of how the enemy team chooses to deal with him (focus or ignore). His ganks are, if done correctly, almost always lethal.

This guide focuses on a fast, durable, punishing and VERY disruptive jungle Rammus. A true Mobile Wrecking Ball. Now, onwards to the actual guide!

Preseason Update

The preseason update introduced a big number of items and changes that made Rammus viable again. Hunter's Machete makes him fast enough even if it eats at his early game resistance. But its upgrades are where it really hits home and makes him great again. Both the Spirit Stone and Spirit of the Ancient Golem are really good items that are REALLY worth the investment. Both jungle changes and item changes feel as if they'd let Rammus make a comeback in the game.

When to pick Rammus

1. When he is available! Rammus is awesome and you should always pick him.
2. When your team has heroes that could benefit from his abilities or when the other team has heroes that would "benefit" from his disruptions.
3. When the enemy doesn't pick a really powerful counter-jungling hero. Such heroes will quickly starve you of resources and also provide potent ganks and will leave you behind. Junglers to avoid: , , or (Pheonix. Tiger is easily defeated by Rammus and quite slower at clearing camps.)

Your team

Rammus works well with heroes that need that extra few seconds to deal out, as Phreak would say, Tons of Damage. Either they don't have enough disables, they need time to channel their spells, they have skillshots they could miss or they might have a hard time surviving. Try to pick Rammus to compliment those kinds of heroes. Examples of heroes like that: , , , , , , etc.

Enemy team

Rammus is a horrible hero to be against. Skillshot heroes will hate Rammus for soaking up all their damage while heroes with channeling abilities will cry tears of blood. He is a potent counter to heroes with high mobility as he can outrun and catch them. Pick Rammus to counter heroes like: , , , , , etc.

3. When you want to jungle and your team lacks a potent initiator and tank.
4. When he doesn't get banned.

Masteries

The new masteries make the defense tree a bit more interesting. There are many choices to be had and you can go one way or the other. There are a few core builds I'd recommend. The rest is up to how you like to play your hero and how you see yourself in your team. As with items and runes, I say that there's NO cookie cutter build. Analyze, adapt, improvise.

Things to get:

The priorities are: damage reduction (either armor or flat reduction), health and mobility. Important masteries that I'd really recommend getting are: Durability + Veteran Scars, Tough Skin + Bladed Armor, Juggernaut, Tenacius and Honor guard. Others should be chosen to suit YOUR play style and according to your enemies. Example: Get Unyelding, Block and Reinforced Armor if you're up against crit-happy heroes like Tryndamere; Get Safeguard if you have a good team and feel confident about tower diving.

Standard build would include 21 points in defense and 9 points in either offense or utility. You can go with more points in Defense but then you'd just miss out on the "9 point mastery" in either offense or utility that offers a substantial bonus OR you can go with more points in either one, utility or offense, but miss out on all the goodies the defense tree offers.

The Utility tree offers a choice of either Mana or Movement Speed, neither being really attractive. I'd highly recommend getting Mastermind and Runic Affinity if you chose to invest in this tree. I don't really see any point into going further into the utility tree since there's nothing there for Rammus. The best part is the final point in the Utility, the 3% Movement Speed bonus. But that hardly justifies the other points. If you do decide to do it I'd recommend getting: Scout, Awareness, Intelligence and Nimble.

The Offense Tree offers a few interesting choices as well. I'd recommend getting Butcher + Fury since it synergises well with Runes, Masteries and Hunter's Machete. By experience I can tell Rammus deals roughly 50% magic and 50% physical damage. I'd recommend going towards physical though since the ability power is mostly wasted on him. The AD goes well with his passive. Like before, I don't recommend going on more than 9 points in this tree. Also, while Utility DOES offer more further along the way, Offense does not. It's highly not recommended.

Runes

Marks:

While Rammus is a tank, he still deals quite a bit of damage ( On my ranked stats I average about 80,000 damage/damage, split almost even between physical and magic damage). Marks are there to help improve that, even if just a bit. I like Magic Penetration since I focus on items which boost his magic damage dealing potential (, , ). Other good choices for runes include Armor Penetration and Attack Speed runes which are very helpful with your jungle.

I have yet to try on the new Armor Penetration/Magic Penetration marks personally but they should work decently on him as they would have synergy with his passive and all of his abilities. Definitely worth taking into consideration.

Seals:

Seals of resilience are quite "the thing" these days. AD Carries, Bruisers, Junglers and even a few AP carries or support heroes are sporting these fine, fine runes. Go with the flow and you can't go wrong. These seals go marvelously with:

Jungle survivability

Early game tower dives

Spiked Shell

Defensive Ball Curl

Glyphs

For Glyphs you can try either flat magic resist, for the fine gentleman with an early game advantage, or magic resist per level. I personally prefer the first choice since early game bursts from characters such as Le Blanc will not hurt as much.

Note: I did some extended math in a huge excel sheet and the damage difference is barely noticeable from Mr/Level and flat Mr. The difference is, on average, 4-5% more defense from flat Mr in early game which evens out to 0 around levels 8-12 and switches to 1-2% at about level 18% for Mr/Level. This difference is much higher for characters who don't stack MR (5-6% at level 18) but, for my point, it is unnoticeable for tanky characters who stack about 150 MR or sometimes more. So I STRONGLY recommend flat Mr for Rammus and Mr/Level for non-tanky characters.

Quintessences

I personally prefer MS Quints since you'll get all your resists from other items but you'll have few items in your build that actually give you MS. You'll also be able to delay buying your boots more. Other viable choices are Armor or HP.

Skills

While it IS an interesting and quite potent passive and, given Rammus's high armor build, it will give you quite a LOT of AD, it's not as useful. Rammus is not an AD oriented character, nor does he attack very fast. It does have a synergy with Puncturing Taunt.

This skill has SO many uses. Used correctly it's a very powerful skill and very disruptive. And you only need one level in it and you can max it last. Here is a list and explanations on how to do sh!t right:

Slowing

Standard slowing is easy and PRETTY straight forward. Run towards them and *BUM* they're slowed. Going beyond that however, a useful tip when using Poweball is to run in front of your enemy if Powerball is on CD and use it as soon as you're able. This keeps you in range to use it, slows your enemy as soon as possible and will push your enemy back.

Initiating

While it's easy to initiate with Powerball, charging straight into your foes will generally mean they'll either run, try to avoid you or focus you so hard that you'll most likely die before you can switch to Defensive Ball Curl. Coming in from the sides, behind or bushes is recommended. If however you DO want the direct approach, use flash. Flash and Poweball, either over creeps or while running at them and using flash to dodge their spells is an almost unstoppable initiate.

Disrupting Channeling Spells and Spell Shields

Powerball has this nifty little knockback effect that lets you disrupt any and all spells or Spell Shields. If the enemy team has a nice little Malzahar with a Banshee's Veil save your powerball, get RIGHT there into it, pop it to pop his banshee and taunt him to negate all his damage.

Escaping

A little tip: DON'T use your powerball to run when being chased up close by a fast hero that can slow you or by multiple heroes. You will die. At the slightest touch, Powerball stops and you're meat. Rammus only has this ONE escape skill. Try to go out of their Line of Sight (Bushes, corners, anything.) or to flash away and then use it.

Disruption

Using this skill to prevent enemies from reaching their targets or taking skill shots for the team, saving your carries from certain death is an important part of how Rammus works for his team. Don't forget to switch into your Defensive Ball Curl before taking that Nidalee's spear or Caitlyn's ultimate so you can brush off most of the damage though.

Detection

You saw the smoke in the bush rising, meaning Shaco just went invisible and is coming to gank your unsuspecting Brand? Akali's getting away in her Smokescreen? Just pop your Powerball and zigzag across the area until you hit something to get a general idea of where your not invisible foe is and slow him down while his skill fades. Works against but not limited to Teemo, Akali, Shaco and more!

REMEMBER: Powerball and Defensive Ball Curl cancel eachother out.Patch Note: Since the Lulu patch, clicking on a target won't make Rammus FOLLOW your target but it will make Rammus run INTO your target.

There are few comparable skills in LoL that make a hero a tank like Defensive Ball Curl makes Rammus an immovable wall. This truly beautiful skill makes you the team's best defense, PERFECT for tower aggro while diving and taking all possible sources of damage. This also makes you a HORRIBLY potent single target damage dealer. Puncturing Taunt and Defensive Ball Curl can wreck an very potent AD carry like there's no tomorrow.

Puncturing taunt is your "You will not be part of this teamfight" skill. You can totally cancel out a carry's damage in a teamfight with this skill. It's a horribly potent, game changing ability. Combine with Defensive Ball Curl to destroy your target.

You can also use it to pull an enemy out of formation, right into your team. Not that this ability works best when pulling melee targets rather than ranged ( I shouldn't have to explain why.)

Even though it sounds counter intuitive, Puncturing taunt is a GREAT escape skill. Against heroes who need to use abilities to keep-up, catch or kill you this is devastating as they'll be forced to walk in your tracks and watch you speed away.

A low cooldown, persistent damage skill. Pop this in the middle of the enemy team to deal consistent damage and make yourself an hard to ignore threat. Also, you can cast this at the same time with and it will allow you to deal consistent damage while chasing your enemies.

BONUS: This skill destroys towers. Pop this and your trusty Defensive Ball Curl to destroy a tower even if you manage to aggro or if the enemy tries to drive you away. Add an AD Carry to the mix and push to your heart's content.

Please Note: 3 out your 4 abilities WILL make the turret attack you. While this CAN be be used to your advantage (tank the turret while your team takes all the glory) this can also work against you. Be careful in turret range.

Summoner Spells

Explanation:

Flash and Smite are your Summoner Spells. Bread and butter.

Flash is a great gap closer and escape tool. You need it. There are no alternatives for what this spell does to Rammus. It helps his initiating, escaping, invading and saving your allies. While it is a decent alternative for this spell, ghost is not a good pick on Rammus. Rammus already has the necessary movement speed. He needs a gap closer, exactly what flash does.

Smite is a marvelous summoner spell, especially for a Jungle Rammus. It presents so many advantages and few disadvantages.

CON's
- Cannot be used against champions
- They know you're gonna jungle?

Always use smite to kill, never begin with smite. Know how much damage it does at every level and always be prepared.

You can swap for some spells if your team doesn't have it (IE emergency exhaust or ignite, even heal) but since it's not your job to get kills or those particular spells it's detrimental to your role to get them. Try to have the appropriate people get them. Note that the only spell you should be at liberty to change is Flash. It's highly inadvisable to change Smite.

If you however feel like you need other summoner spells, viable picks are: ,,,.

The Armory

Rule of the thumb: There are no fixed builds. You build accordingly to the situation and what your enemies do. No hero has that one-shot sure to win build. A good knowledge, in depth of items and characters is preferable to predefined builds.

Standard Jungle Starters:

1) +

Hunter's machete builds up into a LOVELY item that's central to your build.

2) +

I'm guessing this build could still work. But it's not good anymore. You don't need the resist and the damage goes a long way.

Early Game - Core items:

Spirit of the Elder Golem is an item I really love. You have NO reason not to rush it. It gives you:
+ Regen
+ Shorter jungler clearing times
+ Health
+ Tenacity

If you really want to, you can get your before your with this new patch change. However, I'd strongly advise against it. My recommended way of going around this:

Start:
First back: +
Second back: if you didn't get them previously, or if you did, save up until you can get .
Third or fourth back:

If you note that you cannot quite catch up to your enemies or are taking a BIT too much damage you can consider upgrading your into before or after you get your .

Mid Game:

Thanks to the new change, gold/5 items are no longer that necessary and you don't have to build your items around them. Aegis however is STILL a really nice item and one you should get. You can also upgrade it later into the awesome for more HP and MR.

or

Both of these grant you your armor and a nifty little side effect.

Personally I find that thornmail is a must on Rammus on most games. The added return means AD carries will DESTROY themselves while attacking you and popping your Defensive Ball Curl and Puncturing taunt will make you a wrecking ball. Also, the added HP from

Sunfire cape is better versus AP heavy teams since it grants you a bit of armor to tank turrets and what-not while the extra HP will help you take their spells much easier.

or

Bansee's Veil grants extra HP, mana and that little spell shield with a pretty low CD. If you find yourself needing more HP or mana this is the way to go. It also helps initiating since you can ignore one enemy stun or slow if they aren't clever enough to pop your spell shield with some easy to spam spell which is rarely the case. Runic Bulwark is easier to get since you'll already have Aegis and is CLEARLY the better choice if the enemy doesn't have that much magic damage. You'll get both eventually.

Late

or

With all the HP you have cooking now, there's no reason for you NOT to get . You can however get it and also add a for absurd base HP and regen.

Note that it's totally possible to neglect one type of resist if the enemy team is lacking in that chapter. Feel free to stack more armor than humanly needed or just add more HP. (IE Substitute that for )

Writer's Choice:

Other items choices

Most tank items suit Rammus and are useful depending on the situation. It's up to the user's choice whether the item is right for the current situation or not.Other useable items include:

: High-end luxury item. Don't do it unless you're dominating the enemy team. While Rammus DOES move around a lot, it's not necessary since he already has a very huge MS through his other items. : Solid Armor and the added effect is debilitating to heavy AD teams. The CDR is not THAT useful on Rammus since his spells don't have huge cooldowns or big manacosts. Also, as Rammus, you WANT your enemies to hit you as much as possible while they get taunted. This is however an option of they start hitting too hard (ie they get an ): A sort of luxury rammus item. It contributes to all your abilities, helps your team AP carries and grants you an extra magic resist. A solid choice to consider if you're not focused down too much or if you can afford it easily. : While this IS a solid item for him that does give extra MS and health it's better that you leave this to your support. Since you no longer NEED to buy a philosopher's stone, this is forced onto your build.: This works well with AD masteries and attack speed runes or if nobody on your team gets this. It's recommended that there be at least ONE lantern per team for the important creeps (Drake or Baron) although some teams have been known to rock with 3 or 4 of these beauties.

Jungling

Since this is Jungle Rammus, I will try to cover the most important aspects in as great a detail as I can. Except for his ganks, jungling with Rammus is not that fun nor powerful, especially early when compared to other junglers (, , etc)

Protip: Be sure to ask your team for a little damage on blue (it won't cost them more than 1 CS) or else you might end up too low on your HP to gank.

Pro's
+ Powerful Ganks
+ High mobility
+ Very potent mid and late game
+ Very flexible late game
+ Needs only mild regeneration to make up for his lack of flexibility (Philosophers solves it.)
+ Doesn't need more than the first blue buff to get along. He can feed the rest to his AP carry or other heroes that need them.
+ Makes up for his slow clear times with high mobility between camps.

Con's
- Weak early game
- Lack of flexibility early game
- Until mid-game he has to decide if he will trade off disables for resistances or vice-versa
- Inability to defend from counter-jungling or to defeat counter junglers in a 1-1 situation

Rammus doesn't have much flexibility when jungling the first time around. His jungle isn't that fast at first but he gets progressively better and more flexible as the game progresses. Used correctly and with good map awareness you can both gank and starve the enemy jungler of most camps and buffs. Using his extreme mobility is key to doing this.

Rammus lacks any skills that would allow him to, in case he gets caught at a buff, trade off a little more mana to quickly clear out a creep camp. Therefore it's advisable to clear big creep camps in the bush next to them so that the enemy doesn't have sight of the big creep. This also prevents the Smite Steal from certain champions. Beware of invisible champions though.

NEVER use smite unless it gets you the kill on the minion. I cannot make this big enough. One of the most common mistakes I see is smiting the buff as soon as they get there. This allows for a VERY easy smite steal and, if you get pushed off your buff you'll be unable to steal it from the enemy or, if they leave, you'll have trouble getting it since you already popped smite.

Routes and getting level 4

Getting level 4 is very important on Rammus since, like most junglers, he acquires his gank ability at that level. That doesn't mean you can't take Puncturing taunt at level 3 if you see an easy gank. He cannot really gank at level 2 unless he gets a really heavy pull on blue.

Invading early with Rammus is not indicated since he HAS to get Defensive Ball Curl in order to jungle and he is quite slow at level 1. Unless you have your whole team backing you up or if you have good map awareness and you know that you won't get interrupted. Later invades however are quite easy. Rammus clears camps quite fast and goes away even faster.

Routes:

The Wraith Invade

If the enemy jungler starts at their blue (or wolves) you can, if they don't guard, move in and quite easily steal the big wratih and two of the other small wraiths with only one Defensive Ball Curl. Leave a little wraith as a little "HA! IN YOUR FACE" to the enemy jungler and since they might respawn until he gets there. Then go the standard route:

The Double Wraiths

Don't invade, have your team guard your cowardly self and your jungle. This route is safer and easier. It focuses on getting wraiths twice for that nifty level 4.

Level 2 tip: After departing from the wolf camp wait until you're right next to the mid lane and then start your Powerball. That way it will end just as you enter the wraith camp and you'll benefit from the extra damage.

Counter-Junglers:

While you're out stealing their jungle, they might get yours instead. While good map awareness and proper warding CAN prevent most of this, some heroes are particularly good at it. Take note that Rammus is horribly weak at 1 versus 1 confrontation, especially early on. Your best chance is to run and return with help. It's ill advised to lose your blue buff over wraiths or even red buff. While these are important, Blue Buff is essential on Rammus.

Some examples of especially troublesome counter-junglers:

: While the Shaco Wraith bush trick isn't as popular anymore it's not to be neglected. Go around it if there is no way of seeing into it and Shaco hasn't been seen on the map. Shaco is also a very sneaky character and you should be careful concerning his invades. He can jump in and out of your jungle before you even know it and even wait for you in there with a nasty little surprise.

: Lee can clear camps like there's no tomorrow. His ability to jump over walls with his Sonic Wave/Resonate makes getting in and out really easy for him.

The Doc can clear camps really fast and, at level 3, is nearly impossible to get away from. Try to steer clear of confrontations with Mundo and, if caught, call in your team to help. If unavailable just activate your and walk away or, if especially troublesome activate your or even + since mundo is a very fast hero.

Another fast camp clearer, Shyvana has one major disadvantage over the other heroes mentioned: no disables or slows. Being absurdly fast you won't be able to catch her often but, in a normal situation, she should be unable to kill you.

While these aren't the only hereos that can counter jungle you, they are some of the worst. In most cases you won't be able to fend them off on your own and you will have to call on your team for help. Don't think that's a bad thing. Rammus is a team hero, adept at helping others reach their full potential.

If you do get counter-jungled you have two options.

Eye for an eye. If you KNOW where the enemy is and you're not there to stop him go to their jungle and steal their creeps. This requires good map awareness (check if the enemy champions haven't seen you going in or if the enemy jungler is still in your jungle) and especially a little team support if you do get caught.

If you lose a part of your jungle but you can't counter continue doing the small camps until you get level 4. The creep camps now give mana as well as hp so you should be safe even IF you lose your blue buff. It's recommended however that you take care and don't lose it.

Counter-Jungling

With the exception of the early wraith invade I wouldn't recommend early invades. However, later on, invades become an option for Rammus. With the ammount of armor he stacks it's easy to quickly wast creep camps with . Save your escape skills for when you need to leave quickly when caught and be sure you have a very good understanding of where the enemy is. Counter-Jungling is risky. Camps and counter-jungling:

Creep camp - Wraiths - Not needed - Optional - Optional
Notes - These little things will fall to your fast. The damage from it cancels out their lifesteal and kills them. Focus on the Big Wraith and the others should be dead before you're done. They make for a quick bit of exp and gold. You can run into them with your but it's recommended that you keep it for your way out.

Creep camp - Wolves - Not needed - Recommended - Optional
Notes - While these pesky little buggers are painful to other heroes with their little crits and whatnot, they are no problem for the Mighty Armordillo. Since they're deeper into the enemy jungle you should have ready just in case.

Creep camp - Golems - Recommended - Recommended - Optional
Notes - The big golem is quite hard to kill and thus it's recommended that you have on hand in case you get caught and you need to smite it to get the exp and run. When engaging them be sure to check the creep position on the map to make sure that they can't see you. Small hint: Pull the golems into the brush. This serves two purposes:
1. Visibility. You can see them, they can't see you. This also helps you see across into the enemy lane.
2. Security. The enemy can't steal or smite-steal the big golem from you and also the creeps coming from the lane won't see you.

Creep camp - Red & Blue - Mandatory - Recommended - Mandatory
Notes - Do not attempt to steal the big camps without smite unless you are sure they won't find out. Also, while stealing them, make sure that both you and the major buff are in the nearby bush and that you always have your powerball ready for a quick escape. As always, use smite ONLY to kill.

Early Game

Ganking is your most important role. That's why it's up there twice. When no ganks are available make sure you take advantage of your delicious creeps in the jungle. That's what farming is. Do not however PUSH another player's lane. By doing so you are going to deny that player his EXP and his GOLD. Steer clear of such things. Defending however is another matter. I've explained how jungling works previously. Now onto the next!

Ganking

After the first route back focus on ganking and clearing out all creep camps you can. Try not to neglect either. Neglecting your lanes means they might get ganked and they'll lose while neglecting your camps means the enemy jungler might get fat off them. Check the enemy buff camps to see when they respawn and don't hesitate to steal them whenever possible. Carry around a ward for unwarded key positions or to guard yourself against ganks while stealing buffs.

As far as ganking goes, look for lanes that are pushed or characters that are out of position or alone. Try to come in from behind and reveal yourself at the last possible moment. If possible, ask your team to force the target towards you. Try to target weaker, less mobile targets who will have no chance to escape you. Heroes without escape skills or who have used their summoner spells are ideal. An important plus is having red buff which adds more slow to your already lethal combo.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Look at the minimap before ganking! Not for heroes (although you shouldn't ignore those), but for creep waves. Your will stop at the first enemy taget it hits, even if it's a minion. Wait until minion waves are past your your intended path to avoid getting trapped in them. Rammus has a small period where he doesn't move after his ends and you might lose your target.

The gank combo is easy:

+ (if needed) to get into range, + to stop your intended target and begin dealing out damage, run in FRONT of your targets if you can after expires and pop an extra .

Do not overestimate yourself though, do not think you are indestructible or you will get focused down and killed. While you it is your job to take the damage you are more useful to your team alive rather than dead.

Defending

When you failed as a jungler (or your lane fails and they get killed) and one of your lanes dies out you should promptly step in and defend said lane. The order of priorities is as follows:

1) Kill. If enemeis are within tower range and you can kill them initiate and taunt to grant tower aggro and get the kill. If other carries are around try to coordinate with then and let them get the kill.
2) Defend the tower from the creeps. The tower is very important to maintaining a balanced lane and also gives away quite a bit of gold (750 gold in total. Third largest reward a team can get on a single target.) Try to keep them alive as long as possible to make sure your opponents don't get said gold.
3) Defend the creeps from the tower. While this MAY sound counter intuitive it's actually quite intuitive. Your carry is, while you're defending, possibly dead. But he will be back and he has to catch-up. If the creeps hit your tower he will make short work of them, forever sealing your carry behind. Try to keep creeps out of tower range until he gets there even if you take a bit of damage and only kill creeps when it's either you or your minions who would get the creep kills. Don't use your unless it's strictly necessary since it will make short work of the minion wave.

Annoy your enemies

This part is easy. Counter-gank when possible, clear out wards if you know where they are and even camp in bushes just to annoy your enemies.

Camping in a bush after you've cleared someone's ward is horribly debilitating and will either push them back or even force them to take some action against you. You don't actually need to do anything just note that your presence will foce a more cautious and defensive play that will starve them of a bit of farm. Don't camp too much or you'll lose EXP and gold.

Mid Game & Late Game

During Mid Game you should be strong enough to jump into the middle of the enemy team but you'll most likely die. Try to be as disruptive as possible. Interrupt channeling spells, deal damage, taunt casters or carries. By now you should be mobile enough to be able to cover all lanes and camps quite easily. Your clear still won't be very fast though but you should be dealing out a lot of damage. Take your favorite AD Carry along for the ride and get him to destroy towers while you tank them. Don't go overboard with tower dives though as you won't last that long yet.

Important note: Feed your AP Carry all the blue buffs.

During Late Game your mobility should reach its peak and so should your resists. Focus on clearing out important camps as fast as possible and destroying towers. ( Small tip, give the blue buff away if there is a better candidate for it in your team. Any AP Carry that uses mana would be glad to have it. Try to steal theirs instead for yourself.) Your ability to dive into the enemy team and wreak chaos will be unchallenged too so feel free to do that. Stick with your team most of the time and avoid being killed.

Oracle and warding

Bonus Rammus feature: if you're swimming in gold or enemy team wards buy an oracle and clear out all enemy wards. Rammus is fast enough to be able to clear a large amount of wards before the enemy even realizes what's going on. You're also strong enough to survive team fights and makes having an Oracle worthwhile on Rammus, better than on other, squishier champs.

Warding is important. While it is not particularly YOUR job to ward, it's important that you have wards. If people aren't doing their job, you need to make sure a basic level of warding is available. Try to ward the passages between your jungle and theirs to have a basic idea of when people pass over into your jungle. Also place these wards in bushes because they grant extra visibility. Important places include the entrances to Drake and Baron. You'll want those warded as often as possible.

Note:You'll always have a free ward with you if you go for . Don't forget to place it.

Try to always have at least ONE of these with you when facing invisible characters ( like or ). Use your if you think they are nearby and plant the ward if you hit something and see nothing. Quickly and enjoy your free kill.

Team Fights

In mid-late game when teamfights will start it will be your job to:

Initiate if your team wants this teamfight or has the upper hand. Again, + (if needed) to get into range, + to stop your intended target and begin dealing out damage. Try to pick out particulary dangerous targets to your damage dealers and take them out of the fight. Prime candidates include:

, , , , and many more. Check their items and their scores to find the biggest danger and single him out.

Taking one for the team. Help your team escape. Die if you must, survive if you can but save those heroes who can defend later on while hugging the tower.

Play smart! You should, at all times, be able to tell who is the most important threat in the enemy team. Make sure you know who's countering who, who's the main source of damage and so on. Don't charge into the enemy team thinking "I'm just gonna taunt someone and my job is done." Know when to use your skill and especially AGAINST who. Examples:

1) If the enemy team has a Malzahar with quite a bit of AP it's very likely that he'll target one of your carries with his ultimate. Taunt him AFTER he casts so his cooldown is triggered and he is prey to your AD Carry.
2) WW has a potent and disabling ultimate with a pretty high cooldown. Don't let him use it for long. As soon as he pops it just your powerball will do the trick and disable him.
3) Tryndamere is a very potent damage dealer who can survive a few seconds thanks to his ultimate even if he gets ALL the focus needed to kill him. Make sure he suicides in your Defensive Ball Curl.

Note: Do not overestimate the importance of your other characters and underestimate your own. Rammus is a potent damage dealer and defender and he is banned or picked in most solo queue ranked games for a reason. Do not die to save EVERYONE, save the important characters on your team.

Rammus VS "The New Guy"

In this chapter I'll try to explain as best I know how to counter "The new guy", updating it for every new hero as best I can.

Vi is sort of a mixed blessing. While you CAN partially disable her, she can ignore you or hurt you you a quite a bit. Personally, I wouldn't like to square off against her with Rammus. You can disable her, partially by stopping her Vault Breaker and taunting her AWAY from your team so that Excessive Force doesn't hit your team. She can however ignore you with her Assault and Battery. DO NOT attempt to slow or taunt her while she's charging it. Wait until she finishes. And try to get next to her target. Stay out of her way so that you don't get knocked up and slow/taunt her after she finishes her combo. Also, beware that fighting her for a long time will, most likely, wear you down faster than her, because of her Denting Blows and her passive which will continue to shield her.

Final Comments

Rammus is not a hard hero to master, but a rewarding one. You will be hated by the enemy team for disrupting their plans, pulling them to their doom and rolling away alive after it all!

Go out into the world and win, fellow Armordillo!

Updates

Rammus Patch Notes

Preseason Balance Update 1
*Smite damage increased to 490-1000 from 445-870
- Although not major, this is a good buff for Rammus and will help him ease his way around the jungle.

Too many changes too list to items and indirect nerfs. The direct buffs are a really nice touch.Early August Patch Notes - http://eune.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=470458

*Now gains 1.25 Magic Resist per level

While this is a small buff that makes up for the tendency that Rammus players have, building mostly armor and neglecting magic resist, it however does not address his main problems: He is, at this moment, still slow and squishier than would be normal for a tanky - initiate character.

*Mana cost reduced to 70/80/90/100/110 from 80/90/100/110/120
*Reduced the spell casting and movement delay after collision

Defensive Ball Curl

*Mana cost reduced to 40 from 50

While these changes do help reduce your dependency on the second blue buff a little (and overall mana issues), they still don't address the main problems Rammus has right now: He's a slow jungler, can't play any other role and sub-par as tank.

Lulu Patch - http://euw.leagueoflegends.com/news/lulu-patch-notes

* Right clicking on an enemy while using Powerball will now move you close enough to hit the target - This is quite a nice little change but beware of miss clicks now.
* Base armor reduced to 20.8 from 24.8. Base attack damage reduced to 53.5 from 58.8 - This hurts Rammus's early game and ability to jungle quite a bit, although not that hard. Being weak on early already, be careful not to get caught.

* Defensive Ball Curl armor and magic resist values reduced to 40/60/80/100/120 from 50/75/100/125/150 - This is quite a big nerf on Rammus. However it hopefully should make people ban him less in Ranked.

Guide Updates

23.12.2012
- Added Vi. Finally a new CHAMPION!

18.12.2012
- General cleanliness update, finished all sections, removed Smite image since smite damage is different now.
06.12.2012
- Finally, an update worth mentioning!
- Moved the "Updates" section to the end of the guide.
- Partially updated the guide. Some in-dept sections still need work.
26.08.2012
- Added the early august patch notes
- Removed Hecarim from the "rammus versus the new guy" section. He's not really played much and quite under powered.
- Added Darius to the same section. Will add Draven, Jayce, Diana and Rengar soon enough

09.07.2012
- Updated with a small comment on the Jayce Patch changes to Rammus
- Exams are keeping me busy. Sorry that I can't update this guide more often.
22.04.2012
- Got approved! :D
- Added some pictures in the Runes categor
- Added "rammus versus the new guy" chapter
04.04.2012
- Updated Masteries with more detail and pics.
- Rewrote some of the Jungle part and added pictures.

02.04.2012
- Switch form MrPen Marks to AS Marks.
- Separated Jungling from Early Game
- Renamed the "Items" section into "The Amory" since it sounds cooler.
- Updated the Intro section, Jungling (Detalied counterjungling and how to react to counter jungling)

15.03.2012
- Updated the items and the jungling and counter-jungling section.

06.03.2012
- Added "Rammus Patch Notes"
- Reconsidered a few things and moved some details into a separate "team fights" section.
- Added a minor "warding" section in the mid-game section.
- Added to the item section.

04.03.2012
- Added a few things I forgot: , , , and a small counter-jungling awareness section ( and especially).

You have 3 points put in taunt by level 7. Why not finish it off by level 9 by putting the points from level 8 (which would give you rank 4 taunt) and level 9 (which would give you rank 5 taunt)? You can't get a rank 5 skill at level 8, but you can get a rank 4 skill as early as level 7.

If I'm not mistaken, that's the level at which you cannot level Puncturing Taunt. Besides, it's not a strict order in any case. You can, if needed, level DBC over PT if you see you cannot take the heat anymore.

Emanthebarbarian As supergoldy said the best way to counter this is to stop your powerball. The range of your taunt and the range of Jayce's E is the same, maybe Jayce's E range is even smaller. If you cancel powerball in time and you have E on smartcast on Rammus you should be able to taunt him when he knocks you back, making him run to you.

First way is to approach him from behind so even if he knockbacks you you can still get him.

Second way is the real tip, since the taunt range is longer than the knockback range, you can CANCEL your powerball before reaching the jayce and taunt him. If jayce was tryint to knockback you then, you will have jayce knockbacking and rammus taunting at the same time and jayce will follow you as you get knockbacked. You need some practice for this though.

This can be also used in many cases, like when you fight ezreal he will prolly jump away just before you reach him with powerball. You can stop powerball just before reaching him and taunt, which makes him jump but still get taunted. (This can be used if you do not have enough time on powerball left to chase him after he jumps away or if he is going to jump through a wall and you have team nearby that can jump through and kill him if you manage to taunt him)